Matt Colglazier is the guy behind the new web site American Craft Spirits, which he runs out of beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. He started it because, as he declares, "American distillers are making some of the most exciting and diverse spirits in the history of the world!"
The website is just getting started and Matt chose me as his first interview subject. You can read that here.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Cold, Refreshing Drinks Of My Childhood.
Walgreens had a deal on Dog n Suds root beer today (1 L bottle $1.09) so I picked one up and I'm drinking it now.
It's doing a Proustian number on me.
Root beer floats were my favorite childhood summertime treat, whether made at home by Mom or bought someplace like Dog n Suds.
The root beer float could not be simpler. Put a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream into a glass and fill with root beer. It is best drunk with a straw.
We did not have root beer floats every day but if we were playing outside on a hot day, a Kool Aid break was likely. Kool Aid is Kool Aid. What made it great was the glasses Mom used, seemingly for this and no other purpose. They were tall tumblers made of aluminum in assorted summer pastel colors that eventually wore off in the dishwasher.
What was great about them was that, as aluminum, they got cold quickly and stayed cold, seemingly making the drink taste that much colder. For some reason they were only ever used outside on the back porch on hot summer days, which makes their memory even more special.
The alcohol most adults in the family drank at summer gatherings was beer, from the bottle. In my early childhood the brand was usually Erin Brew, from the Standard Brewing Co. of Cleveland, because my great-grandfather had been a bookkeeper there. After that it was Carling Black Label, also from Cleveland, probably because my other great-grandfather on my mother's side had sold cars for The Peerless Motor Car Co. and the president of Peerless, James A. Bohannon, also ran Carling.
By the time I was old enough to join in, most of the family was drinking Stroth's.
It's doing a Proustian number on me.
Root beer floats were my favorite childhood summertime treat, whether made at home by Mom or bought someplace like Dog n Suds.
The root beer float could not be simpler. Put a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream into a glass and fill with root beer. It is best drunk with a straw.
We did not have root beer floats every day but if we were playing outside on a hot day, a Kool Aid break was likely. Kool Aid is Kool Aid. What made it great was the glasses Mom used, seemingly for this and no other purpose. They were tall tumblers made of aluminum in assorted summer pastel colors that eventually wore off in the dishwasher.
What was great about them was that, as aluminum, they got cold quickly and stayed cold, seemingly making the drink taste that much colder. For some reason they were only ever used outside on the back porch on hot summer days, which makes their memory even more special.
The alcohol most adults in the family drank at summer gatherings was beer, from the bottle. In my early childhood the brand was usually Erin Brew, from the Standard Brewing Co. of Cleveland, because my great-grandfather had been a bookkeeper there. After that it was Carling Black Label, also from Cleveland, probably because my other great-grandfather on my mother's side had sold cars for The Peerless Motor Car Co. and the president of Peerless, James A. Bohannon, also ran Carling.
By the time I was old enough to join in, most of the family was drinking Stroth's.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition Coming In September.
It’s hard to make money writing about whiskey but there are other benefits. I get lots of free samples for one. What’s more, I get lots of very good free samples, like advance tastes of limited releases.
While they are all great and I hope they never stop coming, some excite me more than others. Only a few invariably get tasted right away.
At the top of that list is Four Roses.
When a box arrives from Bandy Carroll Hellige (Four Roses’ ad agency) I can’t wait to get it open. Today it contained a tiny (100 ml) bottle of the 2010 Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition, which is scheduled for a September release of 3,600 bottles.
Four Roses, you see, has a unique advantage over other distilleries when it comes to limited editions. It is the only distillery that makes ten different bourbon recipes and because it makes them year in and year out, its warehouses contain all ten whiskeys at every possible age from newborn to double-digits.
The possibilities are endless.
In the USA, Four Roses has three platforms: (1) standard, a mixture of all 10 recipes; (2) small batch, a mixture of two to four recipes; and (3) single barrel, by definition a single recipe.
Each spring Four Roses issues a limited edition from the single barrel platform and each fall it issues one from the small batch platform.
Finally, for full geeky pleasure, the ten recipes have names, sort of, a sequence of four letters. To find out what it all means go here.
This fall’s small batch will be a mixture of three bourbons, a 15-year-old OBSV, an 11-year-old OBSK, and a 10-year-old OESK. It’s bottled uncut and unfiltered, so 110° proof (55% alcohol).
The nose is about what you would expect with tobacco-ey wood notes. I was surprised, therefore, that the taste starts out fresh and fruity, with citrus, raspberry, honey, and oak. Then came the dark caramel and molasses, syrupy and just slightly bitter. The finish, also slightly bitter, is very rich and long.
Every mixture of bourbons from the Four Roses vaults is interesting, but this is one of the more successful purely for drinking. To the extent they use these limited editions to test candidates for future regular-issue products, this would be a good one to consider.
While they are all great and I hope they never stop coming, some excite me more than others. Only a few invariably get tasted right away.
At the top of that list is Four Roses.
When a box arrives from Bandy Carroll Hellige (Four Roses’ ad agency) I can’t wait to get it open. Today it contained a tiny (100 ml) bottle of the 2010 Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition, which is scheduled for a September release of 3,600 bottles.
Four Roses, you see, has a unique advantage over other distilleries when it comes to limited editions. It is the only distillery that makes ten different bourbon recipes and because it makes them year in and year out, its warehouses contain all ten whiskeys at every possible age from newborn to double-digits.
The possibilities are endless.
In the USA, Four Roses has three platforms: (1) standard, a mixture of all 10 recipes; (2) small batch, a mixture of two to four recipes; and (3) single barrel, by definition a single recipe.
Each spring Four Roses issues a limited edition from the single barrel platform and each fall it issues one from the small batch platform.
Finally, for full geeky pleasure, the ten recipes have names, sort of, a sequence of four letters. To find out what it all means go here.
This fall’s small batch will be a mixture of three bourbons, a 15-year-old OBSV, an 11-year-old OBSK, and a 10-year-old OESK. It’s bottled uncut and unfiltered, so 110° proof (55% alcohol).
The nose is about what you would expect with tobacco-ey wood notes. I was surprised, therefore, that the taste starts out fresh and fruity, with citrus, raspberry, honey, and oak. Then came the dark caramel and molasses, syrupy and just slightly bitter. The finish, also slightly bitter, is very rich and long.
Every mixture of bourbons from the Four Roses vaults is interesting, but this is one of the more successful purely for drinking. To the extent they use these limited editions to test candidates for future regular-issue products, this would be a good one to consider.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Bill Samuels Is Going To Russia, Czech Republic.
Bourbon industry icon Bill Samuels, president of Maker’s Mark, will be the featured speaker at two upcoming American whiskey seminars in Russia and the Czech Republic. They are July 13 in St. Petersburg and July 15 in Prague.
The St. Petersburg event will be hosted by acting U.S. Ambassador John Ordway. The Prague event will be hosted by U.S. Consul General Sheila Gwaltney. The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) is putting them on to educate key local hospitality industry executives about the taste, style, and heritage of American whiskey while showcasing the characteristics that make American whiskey unique.
Samuels' presentation will include a tasting of assorted American-made whiskeys (not just his). Following Samuels’ presentation, guests will discover the style and sophistication of cocktails prepared with American Whiskey during a mixology demonstration by renowned local bartenders.
The events are partially supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The St. Petersburg event will be hosted by acting U.S. Ambassador John Ordway. The Prague event will be hosted by U.S. Consul General Sheila Gwaltney. The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) is putting them on to educate key local hospitality industry executives about the taste, style, and heritage of American whiskey while showcasing the characteristics that make American whiskey unique.
Samuels' presentation will include a tasting of assorted American-made whiskeys (not just his). Following Samuels’ presentation, guests will discover the style and sophistication of cocktails prepared with American Whiskey during a mixology demonstration by renowned local bartenders.
The events are partially supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The New Bourbon Country Reader Is On Its Way.
The new Bourbon Country Reader (Volume 13, Number 1) was mailed today.
This time we mark a pair of historic milestones. July 1, 2010, marked the first public sale of whiskey made at George Washington’s Mount Vernon distillery since it burned down in 1814. But Washington’s distillery is not operating as promised. We call this story, “George Washington’s Distillery Is Back In Business … Sort Of.”
Sometime next year, a last vestige of Cincinnati’s once thriving whiskey industry will close its doors for good. This inspired a two-part "History Of The Cincinnati Whiskey Industry,” which we begin in this issue.
Finally, we offer a modest proposal regarding a subject that has popped up here on the blog a few times, the federal Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, in particular the uniquely American definition of blended whiskey.
What? You say you don't receive The Bourbon Country Reader? It's very nostalgic, as it comes on paper, in an envelope, in the mail. (That's what the little box outside your front door is for.)
Subscriptions to The Bourbon Country Reader are $20/year for U.S. addresses, $24.50 for Canada, and $28.50 for everybody else. It is published six times a year. Well, maybe not, but your subscription always includes six issues.
Click here to subscribe with PayPal or any major credit card.
Click here for more information.
Click here for a free sample issue (in PDF format).
Click here for the PDF document "The Bourbon Country Reader Issue Contents in Chronological Order." (It's like an index.)
This time we mark a pair of historic milestones. July 1, 2010, marked the first public sale of whiskey made at George Washington’s Mount Vernon distillery since it burned down in 1814. But Washington’s distillery is not operating as promised. We call this story, “George Washington’s Distillery Is Back In Business … Sort Of.”
Sometime next year, a last vestige of Cincinnati’s once thriving whiskey industry will close its doors for good. This inspired a two-part "History Of The Cincinnati Whiskey Industry,” which we begin in this issue.
Finally, we offer a modest proposal regarding a subject that has popped up here on the blog a few times, the federal Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, in particular the uniquely American definition of blended whiskey.
What? You say you don't receive The Bourbon Country Reader? It's very nostalgic, as it comes on paper, in an envelope, in the mail. (That's what the little box outside your front door is for.)
Subscriptions to The Bourbon Country Reader are $20/year for U.S. addresses, $24.50 for Canada, and $28.50 for everybody else. It is published six times a year. Well, maybe not, but your subscription always includes six issues.
Click here to subscribe with PayPal or any major credit card.
Click here for more information.
Click here for a free sample issue (in PDF format).
Click here for the PDF document "The Bourbon Country Reader Issue Contents in Chronological Order." (It's like an index.)
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Drinking And Thinking About Craft Whiskey.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the American craft distilling movement lately; thinking about it, writing about it (look for upcoming pieces in both Malt Advocate and WHISKY), and drinking its products.
Most of my attention has been on their un-aged and very young whiskeys, since whiskey-wise that is mostly what they have released. Making really wonderful young whiskey may be something craft distillers can do particularly well, but let’s hope it’s not the only thing. When it comes to whiskey, we’ll never be able to say craft is better than mass if they never go head-to-head with mature whiskeys from the majors.
I recently asked the owners of a few of the more successful small, young distilleries what has surprised them the most. Guy Rehorst of Great Lakes Distilling replied, “making a good product is easy, selling a good product is hard work.” Jess Graber of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey answered similarly, “ideas always take longer and cost more money than you think they will.”
What has surprised me the most about this young movement is how well some of these small producers have captured the imagination of drinkers in their local markets. A lot of people, it seems, think it’s really cool to drink something made by a small, local producer. That a craft-made product is better than a mass-made product is accepted as true on its face, no convincing needed. That it’s worth twice as much or more and maybe even worth standing in line for also seems to have been easy for many to accept.
When a product idea clicks so naturally with drinkers, buyers for bars and stores don’t need much convincing either. I’m not saying sales is not still hard work, but look at Tuthilltown’s deal with William Grant & Sons. Tuthilltown has its Hudson Baby Bourbon and other whiskeys on the smartest back bars in Manhattan. That alone is worth whatever Grant paid them.
Rehorst is well on his way to having his brand in every hot bar in Milwaukee, which isn’t quite the same but no small feat either.
Most of my attention has been on their un-aged and very young whiskeys, since whiskey-wise that is mostly what they have released. Making really wonderful young whiskey may be something craft distillers can do particularly well, but let’s hope it’s not the only thing. When it comes to whiskey, we’ll never be able to say craft is better than mass if they never go head-to-head with mature whiskeys from the majors.
I recently asked the owners of a few of the more successful small, young distilleries what has surprised them the most. Guy Rehorst of Great Lakes Distilling replied, “making a good product is easy, selling a good product is hard work.” Jess Graber of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey answered similarly, “ideas always take longer and cost more money than you think they will.”
What has surprised me the most about this young movement is how well some of these small producers have captured the imagination of drinkers in their local markets. A lot of people, it seems, think it’s really cool to drink something made by a small, local producer. That a craft-made product is better than a mass-made product is accepted as true on its face, no convincing needed. That it’s worth twice as much or more and maybe even worth standing in line for also seems to have been easy for many to accept.
When a product idea clicks so naturally with drinkers, buyers for bars and stores don’t need much convincing either. I’m not saying sales is not still hard work, but look at Tuthilltown’s deal with William Grant & Sons. Tuthilltown has its Hudson Baby Bourbon and other whiskeys on the smartest back bars in Manhattan. That alone is worth whatever Grant paid them.
Rehorst is well on his way to having his brand in every hot bar in Milwaukee, which isn’t quite the same but no small feat either.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
This Independence Day Think About The Limits Of Liberty.
In the USA, alcohol is more heavily regulated and restricted than guns. In part, that is because guns have a very powerful lobby and their own Constitutional Amendment.
But alcohol has a Constitutional Amendment too, it just cuts the wrong way.
The 21st Amendment, ratified in 1933, ended National Prohibition. It is very short and simple. The first section repeals the 18th Amendment. The third gives states seven years to ratify it (they took less than one).
The second section, necessary to obtain ratification, is where the trouble lies. It says "the transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited."
That means the states may regulate alcohol as they see fit, regardless of any burden on interstate commerce that would normally run afoul of the Constitution's Commerce Clause. Furthermore, if you take alcohol into any state in violation of that state's laws, you commit a federal offense too.
Most of the states have used this authority to create a mandatory three-tier system for the distribution of alcoholic beverages. The three tiers are producers, distributors and retailers. The mandatory part means no tier may be bypassed by anyone, including consumers who may only legally buy from state-licensed retailers. In most cases, the laws prevent cross-ownership too. Producers may not own interests in distributors or retailers, and so on.
Everything said about these state laws will be "in most cases" because the 50 states each regulate alcohol differently, which all by itself is a significant burden on interstate commerce.
Imagine that instead of buying L. L. Bean clothes directly from L. L. Bean in Maine and having them delivered to your home you were required by law to buy them from a brick-and-mortar store with no connection to L. L. Bean, who bought them from a distributor who also has no connection to L. L. Bean but has an exclusive franchise from your state government to be the state's only legal source for L. L. Bean clothing.
Retailers who want to carry L. L. Bean clothing must buy their L. L. Bean merchandise from the sole distributor in the state who carries it, whose monopoly is enforced by state law.
The state government, as well as the independent distributor and independent retailer, all have something to say about which L. L. Bean clothes are available to you and how much they cost. Will they offer every garment in every color and size that L. L. Bean makes? Maybe, but probably not. While you probably will have a choice of several retailers who may offer different selections, the monopolist distributor will control absolutely which L. L. Bean products are available to those retailers and thus to you. Unless a state border is nearby, you're out of luck.
And even if it is you may still be out of luck because that same distributor may have obtained the monopoly in the adjacent state too.
Now imagine that on an out-of-state trip you have discovered a clothing manufacturer that is similar to L. L. Bean but a bit more suited to your taste. You return home only to discover that none of the state-franchised wholesalers choose to carry that line. Remember, you are only allowed to buy clothes at state-licensed clothing stores. You cannot legally buy clothing online or over the phone. Once again you are stuck.
Although you may travel to where that other clothing brand is sold to buy it, even that may at least technically violate state and federal law.
Let's assume for purposes of our example that clothing is not burdened with excessive taxes the way alcohol is. Even so, the lack of competition inherent in this state-run system makes its products more expensive than they otherwise would be. Maybe instead of a L. L. Bean polo costing $30 it costs $50. You'll get used to it.
Okay, so not being able to buy clothing (or alcohol) except in a narrowly government circumscribed way is inconvenient but it's not the same as being enslaved by Communist (or Capitalist) overlords.
Yet it still sucks.
What I have described above is the state of the law now. H.R. 5034 would give the states an even greater presumption of authority in alcoholic beverage matters. It is arguable whether or not that is even possible. If you are a drinker, it is almost certainly not desirable.
On the one hand, H.R. 5034 hasn't even gone to committee yet, which is where most legislative proposals die. On the other hand, H.R. 5034 has 122 cosponsors, mostly Democrats but with a fair sprinkling of Republicans too. Will this Congress's first bi-partisan legislation be a further burden on alcohol consumers? Are we the sole whipping boy on which everyone can agree?
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